Mat Rebeaud – Why I ride Electric
15 December 2022
Mat Rebeaud has been at the forefront of the world of freestyle motocross since his career took off after winning the FIM Freestyle Motocross world championship back in 2006. Mat then went on to become the Red Bull X-Fighters series champion a few years later and many other career highlights including multiple X Games medals and global video projects with Red Bull followed.
Mat has been a SCOTT athlete throughout his entire career, and as this year marked thirty years of his partnership with SCOTT, we thought it would be a great time for us to catch up with the Swiss legend at his home FMX park and get the lowdown on his new direction – becoming one of the first professional motocross riders in the world to make the move to riding electric dirt bikes.
Hi Mat, How’s it going? Show long ago now did you make the move from a regular gas bike to electric motorcycles?
All good thanks! It has been three years now that I am riding an e-MX bike full time. And that has definitely been three years of fun!
Could you ever see yourself going back to a gas bike now, or will you be electric for life?
No – I’m electric for life. I have really fallen in love with this bike. I have fallen in love with being able to ride at home on Sundays, ride in the evenings and all without having any problems with my neighbors because of the noise of the bike. There are of course other bonuses like never having to clean an air filter or change the oil again haha. It’s so cool, you just have to clean it, put your stickers on and ride it!
True Plug and Play!
Exactly haha
Did it take long to get the hang of the different way electric bikes ride?
I would say it took me around three months to become completely comfortable on it for FMX. Of course you don’t have a clutch, you don’t have gears, and you don’t have the engine sound to help you gauge your speed – it’s only visual. So it did take me a bit of time to feel totally comfortable on it but it’s just practice. And then of course you start to notice the other benefits as well.
For motocross I think not having gears was another big thing to get used to. So often in moto you understand what speed to hit a jump by referencing the gears – wide open in second etc. so when you ride the e-bike with no gears it can be hard to judge your speed at first.
And now if feels completely natural to you?
Completely natural. An of course you actually hear some noises that you could hear before as well, like the tires on the dirt for example.
But for me another thing I found when I started doing FMX shows with other riders and I was the only one not on a gas bike, was that I could hear the engine sound from their bikes, but not mine. When you are in a train like this, hitting the ramp one after the other it can be confusing haha.
But it’s cool for me, you can hear the music and the crowd better so it can help to feel the atmosphere at big events as well.
What are the 3 main advantages for you of electric bikes?
1. Being able to ride whenever I want.
2. The power. It’s so fast and the acceleration without having to change gears is just crazy.
3. Not having to do constant maintenance.
Will you stay with Alta for next season or do you have a move to a certain Swedish brand coming up?
Yes, I can confirm that next season I will change motorcycle brand and I will be riding with the Stark Varg. I am convinced this bike is going to create a big revolution for the sport, and I’m definitely looking forward to it.
When do you think more professional riders in the world of FMX and MX will start to make the switch to electric bikes?
I think it has taken quite a long time, but right now we are at the point just before riders will start to make the move. Soon the Stark will be on the market, and I think as soon as we one grab the holseshot we will see a fast change.
Ebikes can open up a lot of opportunities to do things that you couldn’t do on a gas bike. Do you have any special projects lined up in the future that really utilizes these unique advantages?
Yes, I’ve got some great projects coming up that really utilize the advantages of an electric motorcycle, but I’m afraid it’s still a bit too early to give away any details at the moment. But I’m genuinely excited to see where the opportunities of ebikes can take us. At the moment we only ever hear about tracks closing down because of the problems with noise, so I hope soon we start hearing some news about new tracks opening up, even close to cities.I’m pretty sure that regular gas bikes will always be here and for people who don’t want to switch will always have that option, but I’m looking forward to seeing some people being able to get into the sport as well.
Thanks Mat
Thanks.
Photo credit: Jey Crunch
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